Let's begin our service opening
our Bibles to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews, the fourth chapter. We begin our reading in verse
9 of Hebrews chapter 4. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. For he that is entered into his
rest as the rest of Christ, his rest. He also has ceased from
his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor, therefore,
to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example
of unbelief. For the word of God is quick
and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. But
all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
But was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
under the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. We'll end our reading there. OK, if you would, please turn
to song number 51, Praise the Savior. Praise the Savior, ye who know
Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render
to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms
us. He, for conflict, fits and arms
us. Nothing moves and nothing harms
us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye Saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor gout can sever
those he loves from him. Keep us, Lord, O keep us cleaving
to Thyself and still believing till the hour of our receiving
promise joys with Thee. Then we shall be where we would
be. Then we shall be what we should
be. Things that are not now nor could
be soon shall be our own. If you would open your Bibles
now with me to Psalm 143. 143rd Psalm. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give
ear to my supplications. In thy faithfulness, answer me,
and in thy righteousness, and enter not into judgment with
thy servant. For in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
For the enemy hath persecuted my soul. He hath smitten my life
down to the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness
as those that have been long dead. Therefore is my spirit
overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate.
I remember the days of old. I meditate on all thy works.
I amuse on the work of thy hands. I stretch forth my hands unto
thee. My soul thirsteth after thee. as a thirsty land. Hear
me speedily, O Lord. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy
face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the
pit. Cause me to hear thy loving kindness in the morning, for
in thee do I trust. Cause me to know the way wherein
I should walk, for I lift up my soul unto thee. Deliver me,
O Lord, from mine enemies. I flee unto thee to hide me.
Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy spirit is
good. Lead me into the land of uprightness. Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's
sake. For thy righteousness' sake,
bring my soul out of trouble. And of thy mercy, cut off mine
enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul. For I am
thy servant." Thank God for his word. Let's bow together. Our Father, we cry with the psalmist
David and beg that You would hear our supplication in Thy
faithfulness, because You're faithful to Your people, because
You're faithful to all the promises of Your people, promises made
to Your people in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that
You would hear us speedily. We pray Thy blessing service
this evening. Father, that you would give us
a word from thee, that you would enable us to set aside all the
cares and worries and joys and responsibilities of this life. And for this hour to be taken
up with our Lord Jesus Christ, to be made by thy spirit hungry
and thirsty to hear thy gospel, to learn more of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, cause his name, the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to be magnified, glorified, and
honored, that thy people might run to him to find salvation,
forgiveness, comfort, and strength for our souls. Father, bless
us for thy great namesake, we pray. And Father, we thank you
for all the many blessings that you've given to us to freely
enjoy today. We're thankful. We thank you
for them. And we pray that you would continue to give us our
daily bread, continue to provide for us in the future as you have
in the past. And Father, we dare not forget
to pray a blessing on those who are in deep waters, difficult,
difficult circumstances. Father, we pray for them. We
pray You'd undertake them on their behalf to heal, to comfort. Until such time as You see fit
to deliver them, Father, we pray You'd comfort their hearts with
Your presence. Now all these things we ask in
that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. For His sake and His glory, we
pray. Amen. If you would, for our second
song this evening, please turn to song number 351, Near the
Cross. Jesus, keep me near the cross,
there a precious fountain, free to all a healing stream, flows
from Calvary's mountain. In the cross, in the cross, be
my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the
river. Near the cross a trembling soul,
love and mercy found me. There the bright and morning
star sheds its beams around me. In the cross, in the cross, be
my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the
river. Near the cross, O Lamb of God,
Bring its scenes before me. Help me walk from day to day
With its shadows o'er me. In the cross, in the cross, be
my glory ever, till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the
river. Near the cross I'll watch and
wait, hoping, trusting ever. till I reach the golden strand
just beyond the river. In the cross, in the cross, be
my glory ever. Till my raptured soul shall find
rest beyond the river. Alright, if you would open your
Bibles again with me to Psalm 143. I've entitled the message this
evening, Thy Faithfulness and Thy Righteousness. Now that is
an important subject for us to hear and to believe, thy faithfulness
and thy righteousness, because all of salvation is based upon
God's faithfulness and God's righteousness. Now God's people
certainly should be a faithful people, should we? But thankfully,
salvation is based upon the faithfulness of God, to do everything that
he promised to do and not our faithfulness, our weak and flickering
faithfulness to God. And salvation is based upon God's
righteousness. And it's a good thing because
man doesn't have any righteousness of our own, do we? We have no
obedience to the law that could earn our salvation. So salvation
must be based upon the righteousness of God and not on anything that
we do. And our Savior knew that better than anyone. When He came
to earth as a man, He came incarnate, He knew that He had to be the
righteousness of His people. He had to obey the law and establish
righteousness for His people because they couldn't do it.
And as a man, He knew that He had to, at every moment, be completely
faithful to do everything that it took to please His Father.
He had to do everything that it took to save His people from
their sin. Salvation is based upon the righteousness
of Christ and His faithfulness. So I wanted to look, and we're
just going to look at the first six verses of this psalm this evening.
And look at these words. First is the words of our Savior. And it'll be a blessing and a
comfort to your heart if the Lord will enable us to see and
to hear what the Savior is saying here. He says in verse 1, Give ear to my supplications,
in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness." Now
this is the substitute. Speaking to his father, he's
speaking in love for his people and in love for his father. He
loves his father. He desires to honor his father,
to please his father, to do what he promised his father that he
would do as a man. And he asked his father to hear
his supplication in God's faithfulness. He asked the Father to be faithful
to what? To the covenant of grace. The
covenant of grace is God's promise that He would save His people
by His sovereign grace, through the obedience and through the
sacrifice of His Son. And Christ asked the Father to
accept His sacrifice, to accept His blood as payment for the
sin of His people, like He promised to do. He asked His Father to
be faithful to do that. He asked the Father to count
His death as the death of all of His people. That they died
to justice so justice has no more claim on them. He asked
His Father to be faithful, to do what He promised He'd do there.
He asked the Father to be faithful to do what He said He'd do. And
to see the precious, pure blood of Christ as the atonement for
the sin of His people. To wash their sin away. To pay
for it. Cover it completely. He's asking the Father to be
faithful. to do everything He promised to do in the covenant
of grace. Now here's how much the Savior desired to honor His
Father and how much He loved His people, how determined He
was to save them. He asked the Father to be faithful
in fulfilling the covenant of grace. And He also asked the
Father to be righteous. He's asking the Father to give
Him pure justice against the sin of His people. He's not asking
His Father to be unrighteous and overlook the sin that had
been laid upon his son. He's asking his father to deal
with him in righteousness and give him everything that sin
deserves. He's asking the father to be
just, to do what's right, righteous, and fully punish every sin that
had been charged to him. He's asking to fully suffer the
agonies of hell for his people so they don't have to. He asked
the father to be merciful to his elect. To be merciful to
that bride that the father had given to the son. He asked him
to be merciful to those people because their sin has been fully
punished in the person of their substitute. He asked the father
to give him everything that that sin deserved. Don't hold anything
back. So that his people will be saved from their sin in justice. Because justice is satisfying. He knew what He was asking for.
The full fury of Almighty God. Now that's love. The songwriter said, and can
it be? Is it possible? Can it be that
I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for
me? Who caused His pain? For me? Who Him to death pursued? Oh, amazing love. How can it
be? How can it be that Thou, my God,
shouldst die for me in great love for His people to ask to
be fully punished for my sin, for your sin, for all who believe
Him? He loves His people. He's asking
His Father to be faithful, do what He promised He would do,
and to make His people righteous, not through their obedience to
the law, but through the obedience of Christ our representative,
to make them righteous by His obedience to the law and His
death for them. For He, God the Father, hath
made Him, God the Son, sin for us, who knew no sin, that we
might be made, what? The righteousness of God in Him,
in His work for us and His obedience and His sacrifice for His people.
See, that was God's eternal will. That's His promise in the covenant
of grace. And the son now asked the father
to be faithful to that promise and to make his people righteous
in him. Now, the salvation of God's people
through the faithfulness of Christ and through God's, the righteousness
and justice of God, that was on our savior's heart the entire
time he was on the cross. Look what he says here in verse
two. And enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy
sight shall no man living be justified. Now, the Savior knew
what this meant in the garden, when He would be made sin for
His people. He knew when that happened, the Father would have
to kill Him in justice. He'd have to. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. That's a promise of God, too.
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And Christ knew He must
die, because He'd been made sin for His people. You see, the
Father is holy. That does mean He's pure. He's
without sin. He's separate. from you and me.
He's different from you. He's holy. But the holiness of
God also means this, that the Father can't even look on sin. He can't accept anybody that
has even a taint of sin on them. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
was made sin, He knew He must die at His Father's hand. He
couldn't be made sin and live. Oh, but by His death, He justified
many. He justified all of His people,
for He bore their iniquities. He bore their iniquities for
them. See, this was always God's eternal will and purpose. Isaiah
wrote that 700 years before Christ was born. His death is going
to justify many, for He bore their iniquities. And the Savior
endured all that suffering so that He could justify the people
that He loved, so He could justify the people that the Father gave
Him to save. And He was faithful to do it. He was faithful to
make them the very righteousness of God in him. And the suffering
of our Savior, that's a deep, deep, deep subject. It's very real, it's very painful,
both body and soul. And I hesitate to even try to talk about the depths
of the suffering of the Savior as he suffered for his people.
He suffered far, far greater than you and I can ever imagine.
But we do know this much, that suffering was real, body and
soul. Verse 3, he says, for the enemy hath persecuted my soul.
He hath smitten my life down to the ground. He hath made me
to dwell in darkness as those that have been long dead. Therefore
is my spirit overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is desolate. Now the Father is the one who
plunged the sword of justice into the heart of His fellow.
He plunged the sword of justice into His very own Son. But the
Lord used me. Christ made His soul an offering
for sin. He made His soul an offering to God. But the Lord
used me. You and I really don't see the
sufferings of His soul and how just deeply He suffered. His
holy soul suffered being made sin suffering and dying for sin. But we do get some glimpse of
his physical suffering, don't we? And the Lord used men as
the means to accomplish that, to punish his body and shed his
blood so that sin could be washed away. Now, in order for God's
people to be saved, the soul of the Savior must suffer, but
his body must suffer too. The soul of the Savior must suffer,
but his blood also must be shed to atone for sin. And that's
the role sinful man played in the crucifixion of Christ. They
broke His body so that His blood could come pouring out, the blood
of the sacrifice. And they did their job well,
didn't they? They did it with relish. Oh,
they enjoyed it. They enjoyed making the Lord
Jesus suffer. He suffered at the hand of the
Father and men, both. And our Lord says that His Spirit
is overwhelmed as he suffered. This is one of those things we
can talk about, but we can't grasp this. The Savior was, His
soul, His spirit was overwhelmed being made sin. You and I have
nothing but sin, and it really doesn't bother us, really. I
mean, most of the time, not really. But how that must have vexed
the soul of the Son of God to be made sin. He's overwhelmed. He was overwhelmed at suffering
justice at the hand of his father. He'd only ever known love and
union with his father. Now the father's turned his back
on him. He's suffering the wrath of his father. He's overwhelmed
as he suffered as no man ever suffered before or since. No
man suffered like this man. He was overwhelmed as his body
suffered the hatred of man against him and his soul suffered God's
justice against him. He was overwhelmed and he says
he felt desolate. The word means astonished and
appalled as his suffering was so deep. Verse six, he says,
I stretch forth my hands unto thee. My soul thirsteth after
thee as a thirsty land. The Savior suffered so greatly
because he had been made sin. And he says he thirsted. And
we thirst when our body is empty of something. When it's empty
of the water, electrolytes and whatever else that all goes into
that, it's when we become thirsty when there's a lack of something
in us. Our Savior said he's thirsting. He's thirsting after God because
he'd been made empty of righteousness when he was made sin. And he
thirsted. That's what he meant when he
cried from the cross, I thirst. I'm sure he was physically thirsty,
but that's not what he was talking about. He was talking about thirsting,
a soul thirst, a thirst for righteousness because he had been made sin.
And he says, this suffering has overwhelmed me. It made me desolate
as I suffered for my people. And then he was overwhelmed as
life itself, life himself, gave up the gushed. And He let life
escape from His body so He'd go to the grace. Now that's a
miracle, isn't it? It's a miracle that God could
die. That life would die so that sinners
would live. And the Savior endured all that
suffering because He's faithful. He's faithful to do everything
He promised His Father He would do in the covenant of grace.
And those thoughts, the thoughts of him fulfilling God's covenant
of grace. That comforted his soul and encouraged
him to keep going, to keep suffering until the sacrifice was accomplished,
thinking about that covenant of grace. The covenant of grace
is found here in verse five. He says, I remember the days
of old. I meditate on all thy works. I muse on the work of
thy hands. Now this is what the Savior was
thinking about. He mused about this. And this
is what comforted his heart as he suffered on Calvary's tree. He remembered the days of old.
Now what are the days of old? It's the days of eternity. Before
creation, when only God existed, the Savior's comforted remembering
those, if you can call them days, that time. When only God existed
before creation. And this is what comforted his
soul, thinking about that time. At that time when only God existed,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit entered
into a covenant of grace. The triune God made a promise. That's what covenant means. It's
a promise. He made a promise that He would save God's elect.
God the Father would choose a people, and He would save those people
through the obedience and through the sacrifice of His Son, who
would become a man. The father chose the people that
he would redeem. And he gave them to his son to
redeem. The son promised he would become
a man. And as a man, he would obey the
law perfectly. He would work out a perfect righteousness
for his people. And then the son promised that
after a life of perfection, as a man who perfectly obeyed the
law without spot or blemish, he would become sin for his people.
He would take all of the sin of his people and make it His.
He would take it into His own body on the tree. And He would
put that sin away by His suffering. By His blood. Shed for sin. And the Holy Spirit promised
that He would in the fullness of time call those people to
Christ. He would reveal Christ to them
and in them. He would give them life and He
would give them faith. So they'd have eyes to see Christ.
They'd have faith to believe Him. And they'd run to Him. Now
that was the promise. Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
And as He suffered on the cross, the Savior comforted His heart,
thinking how the Father was keeping His promise and giving Him justice. Just the promise He made in the
days of old, the Father giving Him justice, was fulfilling His
promise so that by His sacrifice, He could redeem His people, so
He could redeem you all. There He suffered. And He comforted
his heart thinking about it. He thought about that covenant
of grace and it comforted his heart. The Savior comforted Himself
knowing that by His suffering, He was making it right for the
Father to be merciful to His people. He was making it right
because He took their sin away. Now all that's left for God to
do is be loving, be merciful, be accepting to His people The
death of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ made it right for the
Father to accept all of His elect. The Savior comforted Himself
knowing that as He shed His blood, as painful and as horrible as
it was, now that He has shed His blood, now the Holy Spirit
is going to have blood to apply to the hearts of His people,
to give them a new heart. He comforted Himself knowing
that now that He had been lifted up on that tree, as painful and
horrible as that was, Now that he's been lifted up, the Holy
Spirit is going to point all God's elect to Christ. And when
they see him lifted up, they're going to run to him. He comforted
himself to that. He comforted himself. Now there's
the gospel. Look and live. We had it in picture
in Moses when he lifted up that brazen serpent in the wilderness
as a picture. Now we have the real thing. Look
and live. Look to him and live. And that
is why the Savior faithfully suffered everything that He suffered,
is to make His people righteous. To put their sin away and make
it right for the Father to save them. Now that's Christ's words
in this supplication, in this prayer. But now, let's look at
these words as the cry of God's people. An understanding who
Christ is, understanding His cry, understanding what it is
that He accomplished for His people, that gives meaning to
us when we cry these words. Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give
ear to my supplications. In Thy faithfulness, answer me. In Thy righteousness, God's people
cry, Lord, save me in Your faithfulness. Save me. Have mercy upon me,
because You promised to save sinners by the sacrifice of Christ. and I trust Him. I've got no
other hope. I've got no other plea. Lord,
save me because You're faithful to Your promise. Save me in Thy
faithfulness. Not because I'm so faithful,
because I'm not. Lord, save me because You're
faithful and You're just. If Christ died for my sin, the
Father's just in saving me. He's just in showing mercy to
me. Father, save me because of the sacrifice of Christ. I've
got no other hope. And Lord, save me in Thy righteousness,
in Christ's righteousness. Don't save me because I'm righteous. Don't save me because I'm more
righteous than somebody else because I've tried to do my best
because my best didn't get the job done. My best sends me to
hell. That's what my best does. Lord,
save me in Christ's righteousness. Give me His obedience. Impute
to me His righteousness. Don't save me because I've done
one blessed thing right because I haven't. Save me because Christ
was faithful to do everything right, to do everything perfectly.
Save me in thy righteousness. That's the only plea I got. That's
the only hope I got. And that's what the psalmist
says in verse 2. And enter not into judgment with thy servant,
for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. This is
the believers cry. Father, do not judge me for my
sin. If I have to stand before you
in what I've done, in who I am, in my works, if you would judge
me, enter into judgment with me, I'll be damned. Don't enter
into judgment with me. Only judge me in Christ. When you drop the gavel, call
me innocent because you've already punished my sin and my substitute.
Look back at Psalm 32. David sang the same thing back
here, Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. Now I can see that's a blessing.
What a blessing that God would not impute iniquity to a man,
to a woman, to a boy, to a girl. That's a blessing. If God doesn't
impute iniquity to me, He's redeemed my soul. He saved me. He'll accept
me. But here's the question. How
can I have that blessing? How is it possible? I know myself. You know yourself. We don't know
the complete depth of our depravity, the depth of our sin, the blackness,
the wretchedness of our sin, but we got an idea. And just
the little bit that we see is enough for us to know we're sinners. We can't be righteous in anything
that we do. We know enough by ourselves to know that. So how
is it possible that a holy God can't impute sin to me? How's
that possible? only one way, because he already
imputed my sin to the Savior at Calvary. And the Savior was
faithful to put it away. And that lets us cry, oh Lord,
don't enter into judgment with me, because you already imputed
my sin to your darling Son, who for reasons known only to God
would take my place, take my sin and suffer and die for me.
Now, the Son of God did that for you? Oh, you're blessed. You're blessed. I don't care what else happens.
I don't care what else you do have or what else you don't have.
You're blessed beyond words if the Son of God took your place,
took your sin in His own body on the tree, His own precious,
pure body. You put it away. Oh, you're blessed. Happy is the man. Happy, blessed
is the man. Lord, this is our cry. Bless
me by seeing me in Christ and not in myself. Lord, get glory
to Yourself. Could God do anything to get
more glory unto Himself than saving a sinner by putting their
sin, charging their sin to His Son and putting His Son to death
so that they might live. Could God do anything more glorious
than that? Could He magnify all of the attributes
of His character any greater by doing anything other than
that? Nothing could compare to it.
Lord, give glory to Yourself by not entering into judgment
with me because You already killed my substitute. Now, that's the
only way we can be accepted by God. It's for Christ's sake. It's for Christ's sake. So we
beg God for forgiveness. Lord, forgive my sin. Forgive
me. Based upon the sacrifice of Christ. Don't forgive me because
you're just ignoring my sin. Forgive me because you covered
my sin. You atone for my sin in the blood of your Son. Our
constant plea is, Lord, save me in thy righteousness. And
save me in thy faithfulness. Lord, keep me. Because I can't
keep myself. Verse 3, he says, For the enemy
hath persecuted my soul. He hath smitten my life down
to the ground. He hath made me to dwell in darkness as those
that have been long dead. Therefore, is my spirit overwhelmed
within me, and my heart within me is desolate. This is our cry. Father, the
enemy has persecuted me. He's smitten my life down to
the ground. Now who is that enemy? It's me. It's my old man, my sin nature.
He's smitten me down to the ground. I'm too weak to fight him. I
cannot quit sinning. I can't. That old man has been
dead a long time. A long time. He's good at it. And he's brought me down so low
that I'm desolate. I am without any strength of
my own, so Lord, save me in Thy faithfulness. in thy faithfulness. Lord, save me because you promised
to save needy beggars. Verse 6, I stretch forth my hands
unto thee. My soul thirsteth after thee
as a thirsty lamb. Lord, I'm lifting up my hand
to you as a needy beggar. Lord, if you don't make me righteous,
I never will be righteous. If you don't forgive my sin,
I'll never be forgiven. So I'm begging I'm begging you
to forgive me. I'm begging you to give me life.
Lord, forgive my sin for Christ's sake. Now, verse 5. I remember the days of old. I
meditate on all Thy works. I'm used on the work of Thy hands. Now, the Lord saved His people.
He saved them by the obedience of Christ. He saved them by the
sacrifice of Christ. He's called them to Christ. He's
given them faith in Christ. He's given them a heart that
loves Christ. He's given them a heart that
hungers and thirsts after righteousness. That thirsts after Christ. To
have Him. The Lord saved His people. Blessed
is the man. Oh, they're blessed. Blessed
is the woman. Just blessed beyond words. Beyond anything we can really
think or imagine. But they're still in His flesh.
They're still in this world. And Lord has promised us that
we'll have tribulation. One right after another. All
the days that we're in this flesh. Man is born of woman is a few
days and they're full of trouble. Full. So when you're in the midst
of that trial and it's left you feeling overwhelmed. I mean,
it's just, you just think this has been one blow too many and
I'm down for the count. You're overwhelmed. You're desolate.
You're in shock at the depths of this. I'll tell you what would
be helpful. Cry out to the Lord and plead
His Word. Plead His eternal Word. Ask God
to do what He promised that He would do. And give you grace
sufficient. I don't know whether He'll deliver
you from the trial or not. And we know it. But I do know
this. He's promised grace that's sufficient. Been asking for it. Think about
the eternal promises of God. You know, when we think about
the trial, the pain, the suffering, the loss, the worry, whatever
it is. When we think on those things, those things get bigger
and bigger and bigger, don't they? To our eyes. I don't know the right word,
Maggie, but it's like art perspective. You get so close to something,
you lose perspective of it. It's out of proportion. Well,
you know what would do our hearts good? To think on God's Word. Think on His Word. Read God's
Word. Just think on the promises of
God from all of eternity. Think on those things. And hang
on to them with all you've got. Just hang on to them. Think on
the eternal good news of the gospel. God saved sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. Now that's good
news. Think on that. Think on the works
of God's hands. Think of His work. He saved you
by His work. You who believe are His workmanship. The workmanship of His hands.
He's done a work for you and He's done a work in you. Now
think on that. Think on the works of His hands.
He's made you who believe a new creature in Christ. He's made
you the sons and daughters of God. I'm looking at princes and
princesses. The sons and daughters of God
Almighty. Now think on that. Oh my goodness. I know the work's
not perfected, is it? Because we're still in this flesh.
But let me tell you, He's begun a good work and He's going to
finish it. Now think on that. You can just rest assured of
this. He's not done yet. He's going to finish that work.
You remember this. He's faithful to the promise.
You remember God's eternal covenant promises. God's going to save
His people. He's going to glorify His people.
The road is going to be tough between here and there. But He's
going to do it. He's going to do it. You remember
God's gospel. All the sweet gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace to undeserving sinners. Think on that. And that'll
comfort your heart. It'll let you get better perspective
on the trouble, on the trial, on the heartache. Whenever you
call on the Lord, call on the Lord as a beggar. Don't be making
plea bargains with God now. I've done this, so why don't
you do this for me? If you do this for me, I'll do that. Don't be
bargaining with God. Begging. Plead His faithfulness. His faithfulness. His righteousness. Lord, unless You help me, I'm
going to be crushed. If You leave me to my own devices,
I will surely fail. Lord, You promised to never leave
nor forsake Your people. And I'm begging You, don't leave
me now. Don't leave me alone now. And think on the days of
old. The days of eternity. God's eternal
covenant of grace. But think on your past life.
Think about God's past mercies to you. You look back over your
life and every person here can see something like God's hand
directing them. I know He has. He brought you
here tonight. I know He has. I know He has. God's been merciful to you in
the past, hasn't He? Haven't you when you needed it
and you found God's been merciful to you? Well, you reckon the
Lord changed? In just that little bit of short
time in our life, you reckon God's changed? No, He hasn't
changed a bit. The Lord's going to show you
mercy the same way now, just like He did in the past. God
hasn't changed. Beg the Lord. Lord, give me grace
sufficient. And He will. Because this I can
tell you, the Lord didn't bring you this far to now leave you
on your own. He's going to finish the work that He started. See,
when we pray that way, when we cry out to God that way, That
puts the emphasis on the Lord, not on us, doesn't it? Well,
God will hear that kind of prayer. He will hear that kind of prayer. The Lord said when He's going
to send trials, He's going to save, He's going to deliver,
He's going to help His people. You know why the Lord sent the
trial in the first place? So that we'd call on Him. And
when we'd call, He'd answer. In closing, let me show you that.
Isaiah 65. This is the very reason, at least
one of the reasons, that the Lord sends these kind of trials
to His people. To make them call upon Him so
that He'll answer. And He won't wait around to do
it. Look at this verse, Isaiah 65, verse 24. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will
answer. And while they are yet speaking,
I will hear." That's why the Lord sends those trials. That
before they even call, God's already ordained something in
creation, something working to bring relief, to bring deliverance,
to bring help. He's already working it. He just
sent the trial to make us ask for it. He said, while they're
speaking, I'll hear. Now if that doesn't give you
good reason to call on the name of the Lord, I don't know what
does. God help us to do it. Alright, let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
this precious portion of your word that you've enabled us to
look into this evening. Father, I pray that you cause
it to enter into our hearts that we might see the glory of Christ
our Savior, that we might see something of the glory of our
God that's saving, redeeming, keeping, glorifying His people. Father, bless us, we pray. There
are so many heartaches and difficulties and worries that God's people
all over the world suffer right now. Father, we cry out to Thee
that in Thy faithfulness, in Thy righteousness, that You give
us what's right, Comfort the hearts of your people with Your
presence. When it's time, when it's Thy
will that You deliver us. Help us to see all these things
as the glory of Christ our Savior, that we might rest more fully
in Him. For it's in His blessed name
we pray and give thanks. Amen. Alright, now after Sean
leads us in the closing hymn, if some of you men with good,
strong backs tables around for our dinner on Sunday. It would be greatly appreciated.
Alright. Song number 489, Glory to His
Name. Down at the cross where my Savior
died, Down where for cleansing from sin I cried, There to my
heart was the blood applied, Glory to His name! Glory to His name. Glory to His name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to His name. I am so wondrously saved from
sin Jesus so sweetly abides within There at the cross where He took
me in Glory to His name Glory to his name. Glory to his name. There to my heart was the blood
applied. Glory to O precious fountain that saves
from sin, I am so glad I have entered in. There Jesus saves
me and keeps me clean. Glory to His name. ? Glory to His name ? ? Glory
to His name ? ? There to my heart was the blood applied ? ? Glory
to His name ? ? Come to this fountain so rich and sweet ?
? Cast thy poor soul at the Savior's feet ? ? Plunge in today and
be made complete ? ? Glory to His name ? ? Glory to His name
? ? Glory to His name ? ? There to my heart was the blood applied
? ? Glory to His name ?